NO×JAWANDO
Photo: Maryland GovPics, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Image converted to greyscale.

Montgomery County Executive 2026

Failing our kids. Higher taxes.

Eight years on the Council. Eight years too many.

Will Jawando voted against the county's most significant housing expansion in years. He co-sponsored a rent control law that has produced a 97% collapse in multifamily housing permits. He has championed five separate tax increase proposals since 2020. And under his chairmanship of the Education & Culture Committee, Montgomery County Public Schools have faced one governance scandal after another. The facts — sourced, dated, and linked — are below.

Anti-Housing Anti-Growth Weak School Oversight

The Record at a Glance

A record of higher costs, weaker accountability, and slower growth.

Will Jawando has chaired the Council's Education & Culture Committee since December 2022, a stretch during which MCPS has racked up procurement violations, lost state aid to clerical error, and weathered the Beidleman misconduct scandal. He cast the deciding committee vote against the University Boulevard housing plan. He co-sponsored a rent control law tied to a 97% drop in multifamily permits. And he has proposed raising taxes on Montgomery County residents in nearly every category available to him.

$1M+
MCPS purchases made without required Board of Education approval during Jawando's Education Committee chairmanship.[1]
97%
Collapse in Montgomery County multifamily housing permits after the Jawando-co-sponsored rent control law took effect.[2]
5
Tax increase proposals Jawando has championed or co-sponsored between 2020 and 2025, across three tax categories.[3]
$854M
Six-year shortfall projected in Montgomery County's December 2025 revenue forecast — a result of slow growth and a shrinking tax base.[4]

Why this site exists

Voters deserve the full record.

Montgomery County is one of the most expensive places in America to live, and one of the slowest-growing major jurisdictions in the Washington region. The next County Executive will decide whether the county adds housing, retains businesses, gets MCPS back on track — or whether it keeps doing what it has been doing. Will Jawando's record over eight years on the Council is the clearest evidence of which path he would take. This site documents that record. Every claim links to a public source.

Sources for this page

  1. "Report: MCPS violated state law, made $1M in purchases without school board approval" — Bethesda Today, Nov. 18, 2025.
  2. "MoCo planners concerned by 'drop' in multifamily building permits" — Bethesda Today, Aug. 11, 2025. See Economy page for full sourcing.
  3. See Taxes page for itemized sourcing on each of the five tax proposals.
  4. "Montgomery County projects $854M less in revenues over 6 years" — WTOP, Dec. 10, 2025.

Issue 01 — Housing

Anti-housing. Anti-growth.

Montgomery County faces one of the most acute housing shortages in the Washington region. When the County Council finally took up its most significant housing supply expansion in years — the University Boulevard Corridor Plan — Will Jawando voted no, and filed a failed amendment to preserve single-family-only zoning. He also co-sponsored the 2023 rent control law that has since been linked to a 97% collapse in new multifamily housing permits.

The Lauren condominium building, Bethesda, Maryland

Photo: Lorax, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Image resized for web.

The vote that defined the record

No on University Boulevard.

On December 9, 2025, the Montgomery County Council voted 7-3 to approve the University Boulevard Corridor Plan — a sweeping plan to allow missing middle housing on more than 170 properties currently restricted to single-family detached homes, expand mixed-use development along a 3.5-mile transit corridor, and improve sidewalks, bike facilities, and transit infrastructure.[1]

Jawando voted against the plan, along with Councilmembers Kristin Mink and Sidney Katz.[1] He had also been the lone "no" vote on the Planning, Housing and Parks Committee a month earlier when it advanced the plan to the full council — actively trying to keep the plan from even reaching a vote.[2]

The amendment to neutralize the plan

A failed amendment to preserve single-family-only zoning.

During council consideration of the plan, Jawando offered an amendment that would have preserved existing single-family residential zoning throughout the corridor — effectively neutralizing the plan's central housing supply expansion. The amendment failed; it was supported only by Jawando, Mink, and Katz.[3]

Greater Greater Washington, the regional pro-housing publication, noted that opponents of the Corridor Plan, including Jawando, "made it explicit that their goal was to pare back any provisions of the UBCP" that went beyond an earlier, weaker zoning measure.[3]

Rent control

Co-sponsored a rent control law tied to a 97% drop in multifamily permits.

In July 2023, the Montgomery County Council voted 7-4 to enact Bill 15-23 — the strictest rent control law of any major jurisdiction in the Washington region. Jawando was one of six original sponsors of the bill.[5] On the day of passage, he celebrated the vote as "a momentous day."[5]

What has happened in the two years since is documented in county planning data. New multifamily housing permits in Montgomery County have collapsed:

QuarterNew Multifamily Permits Issued
Q1 FY 2022 (pre-rent-control)821
Q1 FY 2023603
Q1 FY 2024555
Q1 FY 2025 (after rent control took effect)7

That is not normal market behavior. As Bethesda Today reported, county planners themselves acknowledged the magnitude: "Three quarters really is something … and that really does suggest that there's a real suppression of housing production in the county."[6]

The Montgomery County Planning Department's own Residential Development Pipeline Analysis later confirmed that, in interviews with 14 developers, "the most common policy barrier mentioned was the rent stabilization regulation passed in 2023."[7]

Bill 15-23 was an aggressive and pernicious rent control law, co-sponsored by Jawando. Two years later, new apartment construction has effectively stopped.

The endorsement that confirms the pattern

Marc Elrich — Jawando's chosen endorser.

The University Boulevard vote was not an isolated moment. Marc Elrich — the County Executive who has called the University Boulevard plan "an effort to give stuff away to developers" — has endorsed Jawando to succeed him. Elrich publicly thanked Jawando, Mink, and Katz for their no votes.[4]

Voters can judge for themselves what it means when the candidate seeking to lead Montgomery County into its next chapter is endorsed by the executive presiding over its current economic decline.

Sources for this page

  1. "Montgomery County Council approves controversial University Boulevard plan in divided vote" — The Baltimore Banner, Dec. 2025.
  2. "Controversial University Boulevard Corridor Plan advances to full County Council" — Bethesda Today, Nov. 11, 2025.
  3. "The University Boulevard Corridor Plan passed." — Greater Greater Washington, Dec. 10, 2025.
  4. "Elrich criticizes advancement of University Boulevard Corridor Plan" — Bethesda Today, Nov. 13, 2025.
  5. "Council Passes Bill to Stabilize Rent" — Montgomery Community Media, July 19, 2023. See also Montgomery County official release.
  6. "MoCo planners concerned by 'drop' in multifamily building permits" — Bethesda Today, Aug. 11, 2025.
  7. "More Evidence That Rent Control is Preventing Housing Construction" — Montgomery Perspective, Sept. 19, 2025.

Issue 02 — Taxes & Cost of Living

Five tax increase proposals in five years.

Between 2020 and 2025, Will Jawando championed or co-sponsored five distinct tax increase proposals across three different tax categories. When the council enacted one of the largest property tax hikes in recent county history in 2023, Jawando voted against it — because, in his view, it did not raise enough.

Montgomery County government building, Rockville, Maryland

Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Image resized for web.

Tax Proposal #1 — February 2020

Property tax surcharge on larger homes (HB 1276).

In February 2020, Jawando championed Maryland House Bill 1276, which would have given Montgomery County the authority to assess a higher property tax rate on homes 5,000 square feet or larger. Jawando held a news conference with Delegate Julie Palakovich Carr to promote the bill.[1]

Tax Proposal #2 — February 2020

Income tax cap increase: 3.2% to 3.5% (HB 1494).

Alongside HB 1276, Jawando championed HB 1494, which would have raised the maximum income tax rate Maryland counties could charge from 3.2% to 3.5%. The new bracket was targeted at incomes above $1 million.[2]

Tax Proposal #3 — January 2023

Income tax cap increase: 3.2% to 3.7% (Palakovich Carr / Jawando bill).

In January 2023, Jawando appeared with Palakovich Carr to promote the "More Local Tax Relief for Working Families Act of 2023." The bill would have raised the maximum income tax rate Maryland counties could charge from 3.2% to 3.7%, with the new bracket targeted at incomes above $500,000.[3]

Jawando said at the news conference that if the state bill passed, he was "very interested" in using his council authority to work with colleagues "immediately" on a county-level progressive bracket bill.[3]

Tax Proposal #4 — May 2023

Recordation tax increase — a tax on buying a home (Bill 17-23).

On May 9, 2023, the Montgomery County Council voted 7-4 to enact Bill 17-23, increasing the county recordation tax — a one-time tax paid when buying or refinancing a home. Councilmember Kristin Mink was the lead sponsor; Jawando was the co-sponsor.[4]

In Jawando's own words, the buyer of a million-dollar home would pay roughly $1,500 more at closing under the new rates.[5] The Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors said the increase, combined with the property tax hike Jawando was pushing in parallel, "would hurt anyone even thinking of buying a home in the county."[6]

May 2023 — The 4.7% vote

Voted no on a 4.7% property tax hike because it was too low.

Days after the recordation tax bill passed, the council voted to approve a 4.7% property tax increase as part of the FY24 operating budget — one of the largest property tax hikes in recent county history. Jawando voted against the measure.[7]

WTOP and Bethesda Magazine reported Jawando, Mink, and Stewart "objected to cutting the proposed increase by roughly half, insisting schools needed a greater funding increase."[8]

A 4.7% property tax increase was, to Will Jawando, not large enough.

Tax Proposal #5 — May 2025

Income tax increase, 3.2% to 3.3%, to fund MCPS.

In May 2025, Jawando publicly backed County Executive Marc Elrich's proposal to raise the county income tax from 3.2% to 3.3% to fully fund the MCPS budget request for fiscal year 2026.[9]

When the council rejected the income tax increase in favor of a one-time redirection of retiree health funds, Jawando issued a statement calling the alternative "not a sustainable solution," writing: "We must identify responsible and equitable ways to raise revenues."[10]

The pattern

When the question is revenue, Jawando's answer is "more."

Property. Recordation. Income. Income again. Property again. Across five years and three tax categories, Jawando's instinct is the same. When the council passed one of the largest property tax hikes in recent history, he voted against it — for being too small. When schools needed funding, his answer was a tax increase, not the operational accountability that should come from his own committee.

Montgomery County residents already pay among the highest combined state and local taxes in the country. Voters deciding the next County Executive race will decide whether that trajectory continues.

Sources for this page

  1. "Should Montgomery County's wealthy pay more taxes?" — Fox 5 DC, Feb. 25, 2020.
  2. "State bills would let Montgomery Co. raise some income taxes, cut some property taxes" — WTOP, Feb. 24, 2020.
  3. "Progressives float bill to let Montgomery, other counties hike taxes on top earners" — Bethesda Magazine, Jan. 17, 2023.
  4. "County Councilmembers Mink, Jawando propose legislation to increase real estate 'recordation' tax" — Bethesda Magazine, March 21, 2023.
  5. "Montgomery County Council raises the recordation tax rate." — WJLA, May 2023.
  6. "Recordation tax increase OK'd for homes sold at prices over $600,000" — Bethesda Magazine, May 11, 2023.
  7. "Council Updates Recordation Tax Rates" — Montgomery County official release, May 9, 2023.
  8. "In preliminary budget vote, Montgomery Co. Council OKs nearly 5-cent property tax hike" — WTOP, May 19, 2023. See also Bethesda Magazine.
  9. "Montgomery County councilmember backs raising income tax to fund vital services" — WUSA9, May 5, 2025.
  10. "Some still advocate for income tax hike despite new MCPS budget funding proposal" — Bethesda Magazine, May 13, 2025.

Issue 03 — Economy

A county economy in serious trouble.

Montgomery County is not keeping up. Economic growth has effectively flatlined while Northern Virginia surges ahead. Housing production has collapsed under a rent control law Will Jawando co-sponsored. The county now projects an $854 million revenue shortfall over six years. These are the conditions the next County Executive will inherit — and several of them are direct consequences of votes Jawando cast.

Pike & Rose development, North Bethesda, Maryland

Photo: Lorax, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Image resized for web.

The big picture

0.2% growth over five years. Fairfax: 20.8%.

According to research from George Mason University's Stephen S. Fuller Institute, Montgomery County's Gross Regional Product (GRP) — the broadest measure of economic activity — grew just 0.2% from 2017 to 2022. Over the same five-year period:

  • Fairfax County, VA: +20.8%
  • Loudoun County, VA: +25.9%
  • Stafford County, VA: +18.8%

The GMU researchers concluded that "Northern Virginia notably outperformed Suburban Maryland." Northern Virginia's share of the Washington Region's economy rose from 43.4% in 2017 to 46.4% in 2022, while Suburban Maryland's share declined from 30.9% to 28.5%.[1]

This is not a story about federal employment or macro trends affecting everyone equally. Montgomery County's neighbors are growing. Montgomery County is not.

Housing production

Multifamily permits in free fall — 97% drop after Jawando's rent control bill.

This is the single clearest causal link between a Jawando vote and a measurable economic harm. Jawando was one of six original sponsors of Bill 15-23, the 2023 rent control law. After the law took effect in July 2024, multifamily housing permits in Montgomery County essentially stopped:[2]

QuarterNew Multifamily Permits Issued
Q1 FY 2022821
Q1 FY 2023603
Q1 FY 2024555
Q1 FY 20257

The same pattern does not show up in other Maryland counties. Between October 2024 and August 2025, the county issued permits for 54 multifamily housing units. Several neighboring jurisdictions, by comparison, issued hundreds or thousands.[3]

The Montgomery County Planning Department's own analysis of the development pipeline, based on 14 developer interviews, found that "by far the most common policy barrier mentioned was the rent stabilization regulation passed in 2023."[4]

The revenue picture

$854 million shortfall over six years.

In December 2025, Montgomery County's Office of Management and Budget delivered the news to the Council: the county's six-year fiscal forecast had been revised down by $854 million. Property taxes alone are projected to come in $530 million below earlier expectations over the period; income taxes are projected $312 million below.[5]

County officials pointed primarily to federal policy changes — reduced federal workforce, slower immigration, tariff-driven cost increases. But the underlying vulnerability is the one GMU has been documenting for years: Montgomery County's economy is too dependent on a single sector and has not diversified the way Northern Virginia has.[1]

This is the fiscal picture the next County Executive will inherit. The county that has spent the last decade making housing supply harder, raising taxes repeatedly, and presiding over MCPS scandals now has to figure out how to close a near-billion-dollar revenue gap without driving more residents and businesses across the river.

What this means for voters

A track record that points one direction.

The Montgomery County economy is at an inflection point. The next County Executive will decide whether the county chooses growth — building more housing, attracting more employers, broadening the tax base — or doubles down on the policies of the past decade.

Will Jawando's record on every one of those questions is on the page you just read. He co-sponsored the rent control law that froze multifamily construction. He voted against the University Boulevard housing plan. He has proposed five different tax increases. And he has chaired the Education Committee through one of the most troubled stretches in MCPS history — the same school system whose performance is central to the county's competitiveness for families and employers.

This is the record. Voters can decide what to do with it.

Sources for this page

  1. "Regional Economic Output From 2017 to 2022" — Stephen S. Fuller Institute, George Mason University, Jan. 29, 2024.
  2. "Council Passes Bill to Stabilize Rent" — Montgomery Community Media, July 19, 2023. For 7-4 vote roster including Jawando, see also Montgomery County official release.
  3. "Is Montgomery County's controversial rent stabilization law working?" — The Baltimore Banner, Feb. 24, 2026.
  4. "MoCo planners concerned by 'drop' in multifamily building permits" — Bethesda Today, Aug. 11, 2025. See also "More Evidence That Rent Control is Preventing Housing Construction" — Montgomery Perspective, Sept. 19, 2025.
  5. "Montgomery County projects $854M less in revenues over 6 years" — WTOP, Dec. 10, 2025. See also Fox 5 DC and WJLA.

Issue 04 — Education

An Education Chair who has failed to hold MCPS to account.

Will Jawando has chaired the Montgomery County Council's Education & Culture Committee — the body with oversight responsibility for Montgomery County Public Schools — since December 2022. During his chairmanship, MCPS has produced one of the most troubled governance records of any large school district in the region.

Will Jawando portrait

Photo: Benjamin Sky Brandt for the Montgomery County Council, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr. Image resized for web.

Outcomes — the bottom line

Outcomes are getting worse, not better.

Will Jawando has chaired the Council's Education & Culture Committee since December 2022. During his tenure, the indicators that matter most to Montgomery County families have all moved in the wrong direction.

−2,641
Students lost in a single year (2024-25 to 2025-26) — the largest one-year decline since the pandemic. Total enrollment has dropped ~8,700 from its 2019 peak, and MCPS projects another 7,000-student decline by 2031-32.[1]
54.9%
MCPS third graders proficient in English Language Arts on the 2023-24 state MCAP — meaning roughly half cannot read at grade level. A 2.7-point decline from the previous year. The committee charged with oversight has presided over fluctuation, not improvement.[2]
−3 pts
Single-year drop in MCPS graduation rate — 91.85% (Class of 2024) to 88.77% (Class of 2025). Largest decline in five years, more than twice the statewide drop. Hispanic/Latino students fell 6.7 points; multilingual learners 6.5 points; homeless students ~8 points.[3]

These are not abstract statistics. They are the measurable result of a school system that has been allowed to drift through a parade of governance scandals while its core mission — educating Montgomery County's children — falters.

The Beidleman scandal

Years of harassment complaints. A $2.3 million bill. "A personnel matter."

The Beidleman matter is the most serious MCPS scandal of Jawando's tenure as Education Committee chair. In August 2023, MCPS placed principal Joel Beidleman on extended leave following a Washington Post investigation. The Post documented that Beidleman had been promoted to lead Paint Branch High School despite at least 18 internal complaints of sexual harassment, bullying, and retaliation lodged over seven years.[9]

A December 2023 Office of the Inspector General report substantiated the allegations and identified "areas where MCPS leadership failed to be more proactive in addressing behavior that clearly violated established policies."[10] A separate Washington Post investigation found that an MCPS official had tampered with the internal investigation by directing changes to its findings.[11] WJLA documented the matter has cost taxpayers more than $2.3 million in legal fees, crisis-management services, and a $300,000 settlement to a former teacher.[12]

As Education Committee chair, Jawando pressed for release of the law firm's investigation report. But on the larger question of accountability — and specifically whether Superintendent Monifa McKnight should remain in her role — Jawando repeatedly described it as "a personnel matter" for the Board of Education to handle.[13]

Years of complaints. A substantiated misconduct finding. Investigation tampering. Over $2.3 million in taxpayer costs. From the Education Committee chair: "It's a personnel matter."

Other governance failures on his watch

A pattern of failures the Education Committee did not catch.

$1 million in procurement violations. A November 2025 Office of the Inspector General report found MCPS made approximately $1 million in purchases during FY23 and FY24 without obtaining required Board of Education approval, in violation of Maryland state law. Seven vendors were paid over the $25,000 threshold without approval — in some cases through aggregated smaller payments that evaded oversight entirely. MCPS conceded the report's accuracy. The OIG, not the Council, caught it.[4][5]

$168 million electric bus contract canceled as "unreasonable and illegal." Three weeks before the OIG procurement report, the Maryland State Board of Education tossed out an MCPS electric bus contract on those grounds.[4]

$39.3 million in state aid forfeited to a paperwork error. In October 2024, MCPS disclosed it would not receive expected state aid for the Charles W. Woodward Project — funding forfeited due to MCPS errors in calculating prevailing wage and bid awards. The Education and Culture Committee, with oversight responsibility, did not uncover it.[6]

Special-needs students pushed online; a teacher shortage that never ended. In summer 2022, roughly 175 students in the MCPS Extended School Year special education program were notified just before the program began that their services would shift to virtual format. MCPS told families that "due to the significant teacher shortage, (MCPS) has been unable to hire special education teachers."[7] As of August 2025, special education remained the largest category of MCPS vacancies, with 69 special education openings and 282 teacher-level vacancies overall.[8]

The pattern

A pattern of failure on his watch.

Procurement violations. A canceled $168 million contract. $39 million in lost state aid. Years-long harassment complaints handled with cover-up rather than action. A teacher shortage that pushes special-needs students online. The superintendent forced out. And the outcomes that matter most to families — enrollment, reading, graduation — all moving the wrong way.

Every one of these happened under the Council's Education and Culture Committee chair. Voters deserve to know whether that chair held MCPS to account — or whether he treated each failure as someone else's problem.

Sources for this page

  1. "MCPS enrollment continues to decline, projections show further drops" — Bethesda Today, Nov. 4, 2025. See also WTOP, Oct. 16, 2025.
  2. "MCPS MCAP scores show modest gains but persistent gaps" — Bethesda Today, Sept. 12, 2024. See also MCPS press release.
  3. "MCPS graduation rate falls to five-year low" — Bethesda Today, Jan. 28, 2026. See also MoCo Show, Jan. 27, 2026.
  4. "Report finds MCPS spent $1M without Board of Education approval" — Fox 5 DC, Nov. 18, 2025.
  5. "Report raises questions about spending at Montgomery County Public Schools" — 7News/WJLA, Nov. 2025. See also Bethesda Today.
  6. "Montgomery Co. Public Schools loses out on $39M in funding due to a submission error" — WUSA9, Oct. 2024.
  7. "Staffing shortages push MCPS summer school program students online" — Bethesda Magazine, June 30, 2022.
  8. "95% of special education teacher positions filled, MCPS says" — Bethesda Magazine, Sept. 15, 2025.
  9. "Law firm investigating MCPS has previously worked for it" — The Washington Post, Aug. 2023.
  10. "Statement From Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando on the OIG Report Related to MCPS Principal Beidleman" — Montgomery County, Dec. 2023.
  11. "MCPS official tampered with investigation of principal, report says" — The Washington Post, Oct. 13, 2023.
  12. "Misconduct case against former Montgomery Co. principal is costing taxpayers millions" — WJLA, July 2024.
  13. "Former MCPS principal Beidleman out amidst controversy and ongoing investigations" — Fox 5 DC, Jan. 25, 2024.